otherversefandomcom-20200215-history
Darktail Farstalker
The tale of Darktail Farstalker is an illustrious one, though one that has fallen into the realm of uncommon myth and rumor in the wake of more recent events - after all, "the tall tales and many lives of Darktail Farstalker" is a proverbial story that is over half a decade old. If one cares to delve into legend and lore, however, there are quite a few things that one may be able to discover about this white Demarian with a distinctive black tail. Early History His is a tale that begins in the year 2629 CE upon Demaria, with a prelude that involved his mother - Snowpaw Thistlechaser (formerly Sandwalker) - fleeing the Demarian homeworld to escape the scandal and shame resulting from a Noble falling pregnant to an underclasser servant. From there, the story moves to Sivad, where the same ex-Noble sought refuge with an old friend, raising her only child upon a vast refueling platform far off the eastern coast off Enaj. So it was that Darktail's education was to one based around the agronomy of the Sivadian people, the animadversion and romances of visiting traders and pilots, the practicality of machinery and space-faring vessels, and many other elements that such a location exposes one to. The Kretonian Invasion and Sanctuary In 2651 CE, however, the Kretonians invaded and promptly shattered an older Darktail Farstalker's world entirely. Caught far from home on a routine trading run when the Kretonians hit Sivad, the Snowcat had little option but to flee the impending carnage and sought shelter upon the colossal life-ship SVS Sanctuary, landing mere minutes before the vessel began its historic voyage into Hiverspace. Darktail maintained a low profile during that voyage and spent most of his time upon his ship, the Blue Ruin, going through old technical manuals when not otherwise wandering the corridors and hallways of Sanctuary looking for any trace of his mother, or for any splinter of his old life and friends. He found none, but did gain an empathy for many other people of various races in the process. The Return to Realspace Upon returning to "Realspace" in 3000 CE, Darktail began the process of forging a new legacy for himself. Finding that the universe wasn't the same one he left behind, however, the Snowcat decided to try his luck among the "outer" colonies and settlements, working as a privateer and smuggler to whomever contracted his services. This culminated with Darktail getting involved in a civil war upon the independent world of Harpax, in which he ultimately helped the "rebels" of that conflict win the conflict and restore the "desposed" Princess of the "Kingdom of Harpax" back to the throne - only to then be cast out by the new government, resulting in a dramatic chase through an asteroid belt with a few gunships on his tail, with a number of equally dramatic scrapes and explosions to follow it. At this point, Darktail returned to the "core" systems, and decided to set up shop on the SVS Sanctuary once more, now in orbit above Demaria. The Return to Sanctuary Using the experience he earned during his months of working as a private contractor in the fringe systems, Darktail decided to try his paw at the "Soldier of Fortune" profession, and - along with a few like-minded comrades - eventually established a mercenary outfit by the name of the "Avante Stormriders". With little call for mercenaries at that time, however, the focus of the company soon changed to trading and - after destroying a rival company that had been formed out of jealousy - the Stormriders developed in a small but successful trading company split between actual cargo haulers and escort vessels. Shiningcoat Sandwalker It was around this time that Darktail became involved in politics as well, though not of his own volition, due to a blossoming romance between himself and Shiningcoat Sandwalker - the grand-daughter of one of Demaria's most senior figures and voices at the time, Stumppaw Sandwalker. As neither a Noble, Underclass, nor New Alhiran because of his rare "Outlander" status among the Demarian race (due to his Sivadian upbringing and being the child of an exile), Stumppaw Sandwalker had a hard time opposing the romance on the basis of social class, and so made sure to use any "bad press" about the snowcat to his advantage. However, the "bad press" in question was rarely all that bad, and Darktail often came away unscathed from any such remarks and - though it was a high-publicity relationship - his romance and relationship with Shiningcoat continued to develop without complication. The Shinaran Drift A few months later, during a routine piloting lesson, Darktail suffered a OtherSpace Drive malfunction that resulted in his vessel being catapulted across the galaxy, winding up adrift in the Avernus Cluster within the hazardous Shinaran Drift - a region littered with asteroid drifts, nebulae, colliding planetoids, radiation, dark matter fields, and various other dangers required to qualify for the "badlands" title it holds. It was here that fortune played her hand, however, for in attempting to get a bearing upon his position, Darktail accidentally stumbled across a very large and very abandoned station: Shinara, a Maratropa-class station and platform. Once help had arrived to support him, Darktail lead an expedition into the heart of Shinara, only to find that the station had only recently been built, was perfectly intact, and that there was no trace of any crew, history, or documented owners. Upon getting the station back to full power, Darktail filed a salvage claim and soon became the proud owner of a large independent service and hangar platform situated in a "crossroad" location between a number of much larger systems and worlds. The "Avante Stormriders" were promptly disbanded, the "Shinaran Drift Syndicate" was formed, and the station promptly flourished. On a commercial and industrial level, Shinara Station was a resounding success, prompting interest from a number of governments and worlds seeking to invest in the platform. Shinara Station Under Darktail's administration, Shinara Station saw off two attacks from the "Cult of Sohora", entered into a (curiously amicable) defense pact with the "Nall" (allowing them full use and occupation of the station's three colossal hangars as a military outpost in exchange for local security), saw off a hostile takeover attempt from the Martian Fleet, entered into numerous expansion talks with the G'hanlo government (which ultimately proved to be unrealistic), and established a local alliance of settlements and colonies within the Shinaran Drift itself (acting as a "mini-Sanctuary", as it was dubbed) which he acted as the "Governor" of. During this time, Darktail also managed to maintain and expand the trading-fleet that had started with the Avante Stormriders, became the owner of the infamous (and apparently haunted) IFF Black Fox, and even managed to get his paws on a Kestrel-Class Escort - the DCV Rolling Thunder. However, Shinara's prosperous reign was to be short lived, for - after only a few years of operation - the station fell under attack from the monolithic Drakarian city-warship: the DSV Darlath. A full-scale evacuation of the station was ordered minutes after the Darlath arrived in the area. The Battle of Shinara Though Shinara was not aware of anything it had done to overtly provoke the Drakarians, it is generally assumed that someone had smuggled a Drakarian Artifact onto the station in the previous week - an artifact that the secretive Drakarians would not allow to remain in the hands of non-Drakarians. With fighters from the Shinaran Drift Syndicate running escort (two per vessel) civilian vessels, Nall vessels running screening operations to distract the Drakarian drones, and with Darktail having leased the use of most of his private vessels to independent pilots in order to get as many people off the station as possible, Darktail managed to orchestrate a full and effective evacuation of Shinara without any real planning or preperation for such an event - an evacuation that saw very few casualties, though the station and the OS-Ring were utterly obliterated. The Phoenix Rain In the wake of catastrophe came a touch of ironic fortune, however, for it during the course of fleeing the aftermath of "Battle of Shinara" that Darktail stumbled upon another fortuitous discovery: a corvette of unknown design and construction, adrift within the depths of the Avernus Cluster without pilot nor crew. With history repeating itself on a smaller scale, Darktail decided to explore this abandoned vessel and was rewarded with it accepting him as its new pilot. Thus Darktail Farstalker came into possession of the illustrious DCV Phoenix Rain - an alien Blockade Runner of a level of technology beyond conventional limits. This was a vessel not constructed by any race within known space, but by one beyond it. It was also a vessel that had been built for speed and agility, and - in the following months - would set a number of sub-light speed records that would continue to stand for years to follow. The Concordance Incident The return to core space resulted in an unusual incident, however, that took place upon the SVS Sanctuary once more - then renamed to Concordance Station. Concordance Security mistook the Phoenix Rain as being a hostile vessel, and promptly decided to take equally hostile upon an otherwise peaceful crew once the corvette had landed. Caught entirely off-guard by the reaction, Darktail soon found himself looking down the barrel of more than a few rifles, cannons, and from there found himself in a holding cell with the rest of his crew a few hours later. However, intervention from Oswald Cottington saw his release a day later, and the Phoenix Rain was free to leave Concordance once more. Following this event, Darktail kept a low profile and faded from the public eye, instead spending his time with Shiningcoat as he recovered from recent events. For a while, things were peaceful in the world of the Snowcat, and life was generally good. Then came the Moebius Wave. The Moebius Effect When the Moebius Wave devoured Earth and replaced it with an alternate-reality version in which the Guardian Fleet were still a major player in the universe, Darktail found himself in a very odd position. His relationship with Stumppaw Sandwalker promptly changed as the old Demarian heartfully and sincerely requested that Darktail travel to the Sol System in an effort to try to find some way of stopping or reversing the Moebius Wave before it had a chance to reach Demaria - for the in the alternate-timeline, the SVS Sanctuary had been destroyed by the Kretonians before it could embark upon its voyage, and the Demarian race had subsequently either been enslaved or eradicated from history. Though Darktail never found out why Stumppaw had asked him, personally, to embark upon the fateful mission in question, Darktail reluctantly accepted. Only a week later, Darktail found himself upon Luna with only his friend Silvereye Paintedheart by his side, having left everything - Shiningcoat included - behind in an attempt to somehow save his race from total eradication. It was to become his finest hour. "Area 16" Things didn't go smoothly at first, as Darktail and Silvereye both found themselves falling into the hands of the Guardian Fleet and being detained at a location known as "Area 16" - an "alien internment camp" in the Arizona Desert which the Guardian Fleet were using to contain "non-humans". Getting captured and placed in "Area 16" had been part of the plan, however, for it was Darktail and Silvereye's intent to free all those captured there - a goal he accomplished two weeks later after staging a mass-riot that resulted - with the assistance of his comrades - in overpowering a guard, stealing his weapon, and then shooting a few more before ultimately hot-wiring and 'liberating' a Guardian Fleet truck which he then proceeded to drive out of "Area 16" in an exceptionally dramatic fashion and into freedom (getting shot in the process, but accomplishing his goal all the same). See: Crosscrash The Arizona Desert While he had managed to free his friends from Area 16, there was still the problem of freeing all the other prisoners, and so Darktail and friends bided their time while attempting to formulate a plan of action. However, Darktail's plans were cut short when the SCS Minerva landed but a few feet away from where his party had made camp. How the SCS Minerva found Darktail and his comrades is a tale that may never be known, but what is known is that one Marlan Ranix proceeded to take command of the operation to liberate "Area 16", imposing her authority on those gathered within that small niche of the Arizona Desert - an imposition that Darktail did not take too kindly to. Butting heads with Marlan over how the liberation attempt would be conducted (and being promptly dismissed and ignored), Darktail decided to snub Marlan and her crew and do things his own way. Suffice to say, he did not take part in the attempt to liberate "Area 16" - much to the salvation of those who had. Though the details are sketchy, the attempt to liberate "Area 16" ended in utter disaster. Complications between the two conflicting crews mixed with a generally weak plan of action not only saw the operation fail, but also brought about a Nall attack that had an invasion fleet first become aware of the camp, and then utterly level it, killing all of the prisoners in the process. While fleeing the utter devastation, those who had narrowly escaped the Nall bombardment with their lives found their salvation from an unlikely source: a Guardian Fleet dropship, piloted by a certain Snowcat, that had - much like the truck before it - been "liberated" from a Guardian Fleet base while the crew of the Minerva had been preparing the launch their attack upon "Area 16". In the wake of the rescue (and the failure that came before it), the SCS Minerva departed Alt-Earth with Darktail's comrades on board, leaving Darktail to his own devices upon the planet. "Wildcat" In the weeks that followed, Darktail got himself trapped under the rubble of a bombed Government Center, escaped, got himself captured by the Kretonians, escaped again, and finally stole a Kretonian Fighter-Bomber for himself. Dubbed the "Wildcat" (and disguised as a Kretonian himself thanks the vessels IFF Codes), Darktail used this Fighter-Bomber to wage a one-Demarian war against the Kretonian forces in the Earth area, launching numerous hit-and-runs against vital targets and engaging in a number of dogfights. During this time, Darktail earned himself an exceptionally high kill-count, and - in the process - also managed to secure vital recon information before finally being shot down over Luna. The Crystal Cathedral Perhaps the biggest accomplishment of all during this operation, however, was that he was also the one who provided crew of the SCS Minvera with precise location of the Crystal Cathedral - a cloaked Citadel-Station that acted as the secret base of King Colin Neidermeyer. Located at a LaGrange Point between Earth and Luna, the Cathedral allowed the alternate Neidermeyer and his Thul co-conspirators, Ancient Shog and Voshtov, to hide while they worked to allow the Moebius Effect to spread throughout the universe. How Darktail came to discover the location of the Crystal Cathedral is a secret that he has never revealed, but the results of that discovery are widely known: it enabled David Ransom Porter to launch an assault on the station, killing the Thul known as Shog in the process, and ultimately derailing Colin Neidermeyer's grand plans. Darktail temporarily took on the role of the Minerva's pilot during the actual assault, but - exhausted and battered - mostly resigned himself to the role of backup. (One might also credit this event as the reason behind the Guardian Fleet switching gears and actually seeking to reverse the Moebius Wave themselves shortly after.) (See: Hail to the King, Part II) The Aftermath and a Return to Normality In the wake of the Moebius Campaign, Darktail returned to the galaxy a changed Demarian, without accolade or praise for his role in the conflict. He returned to Demaria only to find that Shiningcoat had gone missing without a trace, that his friend Marcus Harris had been shot and killed after his past had finally caught up with him, and that everything he knew had once more changed into something he did not. Feeling out of place in the galaxy, Darktail took the DCV Phoenix Rain and attempted to track Shiningcoat down. Failing at that task, the Snowcat wandered known space for a while, and then finally decided to go back to what he knew best of all: The Shinaran Drift. The Gap of Six Years In the six years he spent in the Shinaran Drift, Darktail decided to return to his roots and formed a Private Military Company (PMC) with a few of his old friends from Shinara Station. Contracting his services out to the highest bidder, the Demarian engaged in a number of mercenary operations within an environment filled with colonies and people that had become rich through the mining and exporting of ore from the resource-rich Avernus Cluster, but ultimately had little they could spend that money on besides personal power. While most of his work involved such things as providing services to train or supplement official local forces and act as a security consultant or bodyguard, Darktail occasionally found himself doing a few things that were far more illustrious, such as sabotage, demolitions, and the occasional privateering of various vehicles. However, the Demarian made sure to keep morality close to his heart, and refused any contract that was unethical, or would play heavily on his conscience. While it became easy work with easy money, Darktail ultimately found that the actual rewards for operating such a PMC were fairly limited. Discovering that the money he was making per contract was only about enough to cover additional expenses, operational expenses, and calling in whatever support he'd need for the next one, Darktail eventually became disillusioned with the entire climate and decided to strike out on his own once more. Leaving the small PMC in the hands of his associate, Ebonpaw Moonshadow, Darktail decided to take the Phoenix Rain out into the stars once more, before ultimately hiding it in an asteroid hangar in the care of an old friend (mostly due to the cost of operating such an exotic vessel) and decided to go explore the universe once again. Today, one may find a much older and precocious Darktail Farstalker here and there, exploring old haunts and poking his snout around newer areas that capture his interest. A Modern Snowcat Having been reshaped by the harsh reality of life, this seasoned and experienced Darktail is not the same one that vanished into the Shinaran Drift half a decade ago: there is something more pragmatic about him, more jaded, and perhaps even more content. He is a mature rogue, well versed upon the hardships of life, and no longer quite as reckless or adventurous as he used to be. The universe has taught Darktail more than few harsh lessons, and Darktail has learned much from them in turn - about himself, about the universe, and about his role in it all. With many of his old friends now gone, it seems that the Snowcat has sought out the few that still remain, and one might often find him in the company of one Mika Tachyon, with the two speaking as old comrades, though with a history that has yet to be explained, but seems very unique indeed. OSM Card - Farstalker's Flight Requiring 40 Action Points, the Farstalker's Flight card adds a +3 modifier to a Piloting roll during maneuvers around hazardous space obstacles, such as asteroid belts and black holes. It's a maneuver that was perfected in the 31st Century by the famous Demarian pilot Darktail Farstalker. Badges Darktail Category:Encyclopedia Intergalactica Darktail category:Pages with Badges